PURPOSE: To correlate between the echographic and histopathological findings, and to search for important criteria for the prognosis in vivo using standardised echography. METHODS: The study included 51 consecutive patients treated by primary enucleation for choroidal or ciliary body melanoma and 30 patients who underwent secondary enucleation after failing radiotherapy treatment. All patients were treated during the period of 1998--2008 at the Eye Clinic of the 3rd Faculty of Medicine in Prague, Czech Republic. Standardised echography based on the Ossoinig method was used in this study. Histopathological processing and evaluation was performed by the Laboratory of Ocular Pathology at the same clinic. Professional statistical software (Statistica 7.1 by Statsoft, Inc.) was used for all statistical analysis. RESULTS: Statistically significant results were found in these correlations in the group of primary enucleation: US prominence vs. HP prominence (R = 0.8943, p = 0.0000), US base vs. HP base (R = 0.8060, p = 0.0000), US tumor shape vs. HP tumor shape (R = -0.7576, p = 0.0000), posterior choroidal spike condition vs. scleral invasion (R = -0.5341, p = 0.0005), TNM vs. pTNM (R = 0.7242, p = 0.0000). In the group of secondary enucleation: US prominence vs. HP prominence (R = 0.8132, p = 0.0000), US base vs. HP base (R = 0.7959, p = 0.0000). Other correlations were statistically insignificant. CONCLUSIONS: Tumor dimensions, shape of the tumor and scleral invasion are important predictors that can be in vivo reliably determined using standardised echography.

Department of Ophthalmology 3rd Faculty of Medicine Charles University Vinohrady Teaching Hospital Prague Czech Republic